Southhack accuses me of relying on the mainstream media for my perception of Iraq. I don't. I go to the Brookings Institute's Iraq Index--
http://www.brookings.org/iraqindex
Which is updated daily, mostly with Pentagon statistics. I invite everyone to bookmark it. The picture it shows, I submit, is not pretty.
But at least with the raw data, one can judge for oneself.
I'll ask another. Why does pro-choice only mean when the choice is about whether or not to kill a baby but doesn't address the choice they made to have sex in the first place? Because it's really pro-abortion and to hell with personal responsbility back at the "having sex" stage, right? I just want a simple answer.....
OK, where are the pre-war statistics on murders, rapes, torture, gallons of anthrax created, &c...?
Those statistics show nothing other than war is bad and peace is better.
Gee Whiz man! Those statistics show that war is absolute chaos and Iraq is starting to stabilize!
How you can see anything different is symptomatic of the extraordinary ill-will you bear America and her current administration.
(A reasonably intelligent and well-meaning liberal called in, and named six... but not a single one would have been different if John Edwards, Al Gore, Dick Gephardt, or Al Sharpton were running. They were all desires for the overturn of Bush policies or past or future appointments, and not a single affirmation of a Senator Kerry stance... as if there are any)
Reminds me of a second good question: Given that he has only participated in 14 of 112 votes this year, has been widely quoted as saying "I was for it before I was against it", and since he tripped on his tongue and made a pro-Ohio State football remark in Michigan, what reasons would you offer to motivate non-aligned swing voters who know these things to go out and vote for John Kerry? (ie, can he be trusted to actually DO his job, make decisive moves, and not make a major on-the-spot gaffe in sensitive negotiations? "Cowboy" George Bush can be relied to step up and do the unpopular thing, even with France's approval, and the "moron's" gaffes are mostly cute new words like "misunderestimate.")
Source material. (note to self only)
RE: Iraq Index
I would say that at worst it is a mixed bag. Some of the charts/graphs are based on what I would consider a small sample size. The good news, if one looks closely, is that over two-thirds support the Interim government, and 84% approve of the acting president.
I was merely giving you the benefit of the doubt. Simply by mentioning the mainstream media's overall perception and lack of the big picture, I was in no way meaning to say that one could *only* arrive at an "Iraq in chaos" (not your words) sort of view through that one outlet. There are others, Brookings being one.
But then again, using Brookings as a source simply reinforces my broader claim because Brookings doesn't mention word one about how Iraq compares to those paradise vacation nations at "peace" such as Brazil, where 110 citizens are shot dead on average every day.
Yet when one contrasts the "peace" of Utopian Rio to the "chaos" of 1 or 2 murdered Americans per day in wartime Baghdad, an entirely different picture emerges.
Compared to Brazil, Iraq is calm and peaceful. Yet the media portrays Brazil as calm and peaceful, not Iraq. Rio is paradise; Baghdad is anarchy...so sayeth the mainstream news media.
Yet *vastly* more civilians are being shot dead every day in Brazil than in Iraq.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires